‘Saturday Night Live’ To Air Live Coast-To-Coast Shows

On April 15, Saturday Night Live will try something new that they have never done before. SNL will air the first of four live coast-to-coast shows. These will be the final four shows of Season 42. The episode will be hosted by comedian Jimmy Fallon, and the musical guest for the night will be former One Direction heartthrob, Harry Styles.

After April 15, the next new Saturday Night Live will air on May 6 with actor Chris Pine serving as the host. Then on May 13, actress Melissa McCarthy will return to the SNL stage and be the evening’s host. The 42nd season will wrap up on May 20 with Dwayne Johnson doing the season finale hosting honors. The musical guests for the last three episodes in May will be announced soon.

[Photo by Loreen Sarkis/Getty Images]

The live coast-to-coast episodes mean that Saturday Night Live will air live all across the country, concurrently. Those on the East coast will see the show at 11:30 p.m., people in the Central time zone will watch at 10:30 p.m., those in Mountain time will see the live show at 9:30 p.m., and fans in the Pacific time zone can watch at 8:30 p.m. During a typical live SNL broadcast, only viewers in the Eastern and Central time zones are actually watching a live show.

This is the first time that the show has attempted to do this and it is likely happening because of the huge amount of success that Season 41 has seen. The ratings have been through the roof and it’s said to be the most popular season in over 20 years. Many credits the spike in ratings and viewership to the antics of the 2016 presidential election. Not a new episode goes by where there aren’t spot-on impersonations of some of the election’s biggest players.

On the decision to do the final episodes as live coast-to-coast episodes, NBC Chairman Robert Greenblatt told Billboard the following.

“SNL — enjoying its most popular season in two decades — is part of the national conversation, and we thought it would be a great idea to broadcast to the west and mountain time zones live at the same time it’s being seen in the east and central time zones. That way, everyone is in on the joke at the same time. Kudos to Lorne Michaels, the producers and cast for making SNL one of the most relevant and anticipated shows in the zeitgeist.”

[Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images]

The final four hosts of the season are all heavy hitters. Jimmy Fallon started his career as a Saturday Night Live cast member. Fallon was on SNL for six years and has since succeeded as an actor and a host on his own late night talk show, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. April 15 will mark the third time that Fallon has taken the SNL stage as a host.

Actor Chris Pine, who is slated to host on May 6, has never hosted Saturday Night Live before. Best known for his work in the Star Trek movies, Pine’s next big role is as Steve Trevor in this summer’s Wonder Woman movie.

On the May 13 episode of SNL, Melissa McCarthy will host. She has a lot of experience on the show, serving as host four times in the past. McCarthy has also made a couple of recent cameos and had the audience and viewers in stitches over her hilarious impersonation of White House press secretary Sean Spicer.

The final episode of Season 42 of Saturday Night Live will air on May 20. Actor Dwayne Johnson will lead the show and it will be the actors fifth time as a host. Viewers will be tuning in to see the history-making final four episodes as they air live coast-to-coast.